Justice Department Sues Telco For Daring To Challenge Its Secret Demands For Private Information
from the hubris dept
The US Justice Department really does seem to be completely drunk with power these days. We've written before about how the FBI is famous for abusing the powers of "National Security Letters" (NSLs) that allow them to demand information from service providers, financial firms and the like -- with a built-in gag order. A few years ago, we wrote about an ISP, Calyx, which challenged an NSL it received, and had to fight the DOJ in complete secrecy for years, until the DOJ basically dropped the request and allowed Calyx's Nicholas Merrill to go public with the details of the legal fight.However, in news revealed this week, there is a second telco that isn't just challenging an NSL -- which is not only expressly allowed under the law, though now the DOJ is required to tell recipients this fact with the NSL -- but also challenging the whole NSL process itself. In response, amazingly, the Justice Department sued the telco, claiming that it failed to hand over the information requested in the NSL, as required by law. There's no way to look at this other than as a vindictive move by the DOJ.
Instead of responding directly to that challenge and filing a motion to compel compliance in the way the Justice Department has responded to past challenges, government attorneys instead filed a lawsuit against the telecom, arguing that by refusing to comply with the NSL and hand over the information it was requesting, the telecom was violating the law, since it was “interfer[ing] with the United States’ vindication of its sovereign interests in law enforcement, counterintelligence, and protecting national security.”All of this came out this week after it having been secret for some time, thanks in part to the EFF's efforts to get some of the information public. The Wall Street Journal appears to have identified the telco in question as Credo, a small Northern California company.
They did this, even though courts have allowed recipients who challenge an NSL to withhold government-requested data until the court compels them to hand it over. The Justice Department argued in its lawsuit that recipients cannot use their legal right to challenge an individual NSL to contest the fundamental NSL law itself.
The DOJ's response to the challenge -- suing the telco -- is incredibly aggressive, and is clearly designed to create a massive chilling effect for any other organization who might challenge an NSL, despite the clear legality of issuing such a challenge. This kind of response from the DOJ, however, is par for the course these days. It's been quite aggressive in trying to silence those who criticize its efforts, and this is just the latest example. While the excellent Wired article linked above finds it surprising that the government allowed the evidence of this DOJ lawsuit to become public, I don't think it's that surprising. If the goal is to create chilling effects and intimidate lots of others into not challenging NSLs, then letting it be known that you sued a telco who tried would certainly get the job done.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: chilling effects, doj, justice department, national security letters, nsl, privacy, surveillance
Companies: credo, eff
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
Too depressing
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Too depressing
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Too depressing
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Too depressing
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
It's nice to know that money laundering for drug cartels and terrorists is still a sometime, maybe priority, even while the DoJ concentrates on important stuff like expanding the DoJ's power and illegally bringing civil law based criminal charges against entities entirely outside US criminal jurisdiction, as part of its crucial fight against the evil that is illicit file sharing.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
More on NSLs
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/31/nyregion/31library.html
The gag order restricts talking about the gag order... even to others who have gotten the NSL and lawyers.
Neville Roy Singham: Principles to Protect the Internet is a good section of the discussion linked to below, and references NSLs and the librarians mentioned in the NTY article:
http://fora.tv/2011/01/19/WikiLeaks_Why_It_Matters_Why_It_Doesnt#fullprogram
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Just a (admittedly not very well formed) thought.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
You remember the Fifth Amendment? The part where it used to say �due process of law�? Well, those two words, �of law� have been deleted from the text.
�Attorney General Holder: Due Process Doesn't Necessarily Mean a Courtroom�
Piss off the DoJ badly enough, and they'll just take you back and shoot you.
You don't have any more questions. Just stay out of trouble.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
The Official Intellectual Property blog of the 2012 London Olympic Games
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
bring it on
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: bring it on
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
These days they are also learning to put protections against challenging the laws inside the laws themselves, defying the Constitution up to the breaking point. It's like they have no shame and sense of what should be legal and what shouldn't anymore. They just want more power, and they'll do whatever it takes to achieve it. US is in such a sad state.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
The US has gone well beyond flirting. At this point I think you could consider it a serious relationship.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Anyone who gets an NSL should publish it on the internet immediately
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
2nd amendment
[ link to this | view in chronology ]